Regarding tongue-hancements: Unfortunately, we don’t have access to high-resolution versions of these shots, so any closeup we could produce would be fuzzy and would not show any additional detail. You can click the pictures to see (slightly) larger versions.

That’s gorgeous!! And so apropos for Hallowe’en-y weather/time. The “bones” (?) in the wings are just amazing. I’ve probably seen drawings or whatever but it looks completely different with a real live bat photo. LOVE EET!

NTMTOM, I understood perfectly what you meant by “fuzzy.” I was indulging my sad tendency to be a smartass. It is one of my many character flaws, and I must remember to mention it at Confession this week.

@ Shannon: absolutely! I always liked bats, but after saving three of them at different times from a industrial plant where I worked, I developed a real fondness for them.

Nothing like having a tiny bat in your leather gloved hands hissing the tiniest of hisses and baring the tiniest of fangs atcha to make you go “awwwwww” and finding a good safe spot for it to recover from its ordeal.

In a related story: have any CO’ers already heard (get in your Rockin’ Chairs, ’cause this one goes back, BEFORE Ellen deG’s talk show, BEFORE the Ellen sitcom set w/ goofy friends, in a small bookstore…..

Ellen deG, on the telephone with God, talking about his choices….various topics precede to the following question. Ellen:”God, I know that you’re the Supreme Being & that there are reasons for things to exist, which I don’t know. But, listen, really, could you answer me one question; I mean no disrespect. …Oh, yeah? I could ask? Thank you so much. Listen, what’s the deal (or it was worded differently; I don’t have the text written out, to copy here) with mosquitoes? I’m sure that you created them for a reason; the Bible says so.:…..REALLY? WOW!!
No, no, that’s true: I never DID consider, before, how MANY people are employed in the Flea Collar Industry! ”

The bones you see in the wings are actually the equivalent of other mammals’ finger bones, much different than the layout of a bird’s wing.

It is much harder to fear the known, so marvellous pictures like these are great for starting to learn about fascinating animals.

Bat Conservation International, batcon.org has lots of material including a large collection of very intriguing photographs. Young’uns will appreciate their magazine and other materials which may help you turn mindless squeals of fear into squees.

Wonderful pictures. I’m so happy to see more bats on here. They really are amazing creatures and a number of them are adorable.

KC – I have a small colony living near my home. Every now and then, some will swoop down to catch insects from the surface of the swimming pool. When they do this they quickly pluck the insect from the surface, barely causing a ripple. Therefore, I think these bats really are drinking else they would not touch the water at all.

Actually Austin, TX has the largest urban bat colony. They live under the Congress Ave. bridge from May till about October. They are Mexican free-tail bats and it is a maternity colony. (Baby bats, yay!) It is a major tourist attraction for Austin along with SXSW, ACL and the always humorous state legislature!

Don’t know what the largest bat colony is but Bracken Cave in the San Antonio TX area might be a contender.

I must say that BATS ARE THE S@$%!!! Only a few species are blood drinkers, most eat HUGE amounts of nasty mosquitos or fruit or other creepy crawlie bugs. I am looking into getting a bat box for my back yard for chemical free bug control purposes. Mosquitos in Georgia are NO JOKE.

In closing, I think bats rock, and people are just jealous because they are the only mammals that can fly!

I love bats. Maybe it’s a side effect of being born on Halloween, or perhaps the fact that one of my favorite childhood costumes was a bat. But in whatever case, I could not stop grinning at this post. Leetle bats! With leetle tongues! And those gorgeous wings! Ahhhhhhhh. ❤

Plus, the pictures themselves are spectacular — I love the composition, and the reflections look beautiful. Amazing!

Oh I love bats. My husband put some bat houses in our backyard and I am eagerly (and hopefully) awaiting some new tenants. I love watching them swoop through our backyard in the evening.

I’d also like to take the opportunity to call attention to the tragic bat crisis we’re having in the Northeast at the moment; whole colonies of bats are being killed off by a mysterious disease called “White Nose Syndrome”. It causes the bats to come out of hibernation too early in search of food, and since there are no insects around that early they use up their stored energy and die. Ecologists are attributing the problem to human effects on the local climate and ecology- already one colony near us, which had nearly 2,000 bats, has been almost completely decimated. As a result we’re having a terrible mosquito problem, and from there the impact just snowballs.

Yay–this made CO. I submitted it a few weeks back too! I’m thrilled to see all the bat fans here. Bats need all the props they can get. To those who ‘hate’ bats (or snakes, spiders, mice, etc.) how can you hate a thing that can’t hate you back????

You can find cute bats and more info on White Nose Syndrome, bat rescue, and other critical bat issues at http://www.batworld.org .

And if you’d like a nice tear-jerker video to share with people who are needlessly cruel to bats, try this…[removed].

As long as they are absolutely nowhere near me, bats are just adorable. I have a soft spot for the super big-eared versions, since they are what inspired the (official, even!) name “bat ears” for Boston Terriers and French Bulldogs.

Here are the instructions. Get a set of parents from Miami named Don & Bobbye. Have them move to Orange Park Florida (Jax NAS duty/ Dad) ..Explain the birds/ bees to them. Hang out while Mom has 4 other kids. After awhile, she’ll have you.
Does that work for you? You’ll work in libraries, so study hard!! You will get to live in Japan & in Washington DC while you’re in elementary school & high school,
so that should be a bonus!!

In arid regions where water is scarce, bats really do create a line up and a holding pattern like airport traffic to keep the flow of bats (!) going in one direction for easy dipping and drinking. They even will make special barks at young bats that haven’t gotten the habit yet and go teh wrong way. Their very own bat control tower!